From economics to data science for government : a (long) journey

Paul-Antoine Chevalier

From economics to data science for government : a (long) journey

My story (in short)

  1. Graduate/PhD Student in Economics at PSE/CREST
  2. Data journalist at Ask Media
  3. Data scientist at Etalab

Grad student at PSE in … 2005/2007

I was interested in

  1. applied econometrics/evaluation of public policies
  2. labor economics/economics of education
  3. political economy

Sources of inspiration

My research

Teaching was a great experience

Why did I not finished py Phd ?

3 tips for not giving up your doctorate

There is a life out of the lab

How to find a job when you leave research

What is data journalism ?

Social science on deadline ?

The new punk ?

What is data journalism ? (last)

How I got hired in 1/2 hour without applying for any job offer

Hi, I’m interested in what you do. I’d be happy to talk with you.

What was Ask Media ?

What have we done at Ask Media ?

Inspiring figures in the field of dataviz / datajournalism

Next step : data scientist at Etalab

What is Etalab ? (in short)

What is a data scientist ?

What is a data scientist ?

Data scientists want to build things, not just give advice. One describes being a consultant as “the dead zone.”

Thomas H. Davenport and D.J. Patil

What is a data scientist in the government ?

What do we do at Etalab ?

The data governance report

3 axes for data policy

What are our ways of acting?

  1. maker way : develop products and tools
  2. legal way : drafting the law, defining a policy
  3. people way : supporting public administration and working with the civil society

Producing high quality key datasets

Giving legal recognition to « reference data » (Digital Republic Act, 2016)

9 key datasets that are critical for the society and economy, including :

Improving data flow

using data to improve public action

Why is it so nice to work at Etalab ?

  1. People are autonomous : we have a great freedom in what we do
  2. People who are not afraid to learn : we are not specialists of everything but we are willing to learn
  3. People have values : many of us are engaged in free knowledge, open data movement, etc
  4. People are willing to debate together, learn from others, etc : many discussions inside of the team

Why is it so nice to work at Etalab ?

  1. Everyone has specific skills : data science, full stack development, legal skills
  2. But everyone do much more than its area of expertise

See more

Twitter : https://twitter/pa_chevalier

mail : pachevalier@gmail.com

Github : http://github.com/pachevalier